Do negative emotions make for better creative decisions?
Do negative emotions during the creative practice make for better decisions as a writer?
That’s one suggestion that comes from the recent article by Jonah Lehrer on the ‘upside’ of sadness. Lehrer examines research, published in Psychological Review by Andy Thompson and Paul Andrews, psychiatrist and evolutionary psychologist, which offers the idea that sadness and depression [...]
Ian Jack on the unsteady British
A twitterishly short post as I wait for A to arrive by train in Oxford. I’ve read through half of Ian Jack’s collection of writings The Country Formerly Known as Great Britain and — at this point — the words of the unsteady, the unstable, the unhinged — are peeking out at me from the [...]
In writing, don’t chase your themes
I’m off to see Peter Brook’s 11 and 12 in April at Northern Stage. On Radio 4 a few weeks ago, a fellow guest on Start the Week challenged Peter (and Lucy Prebble, the playwright behind the story of Enron) on how a writer could not be aware of the themes of her/his writing. Surely, [...]
Writing balance between ‘doing’ and ‘being’
This week I began a set of sessions focused on personal development and coaching, courtesy of the prize money attached to a Teaching Innovation award I won from my employer (a UK-based university). I only half-joke that my employer is paying for me to find a way to a new career.
Gut Feeling
It wasn’t too far [...]
Exercise #1: Writing my values
And so back after a three week break – pretty refreshed, and with lots of ideas and thoughts for curiosity and emotion in tow. More on this later. But this morning I sat down and began the Exercises in Todd Kashdan’s book Curious? – not in the order that I’ve picked [...]
How to be curious when alone
It was important to write something today. As each day is. So on 4th July, the subject is an American author. I’m reading Jonathan Franzen’s How to Be Alone, recommended a long time ago by a friend. A theme that emerges, other than that alluded to by the title, is the [...]